2007 CAMWS Award
for Special Service

Liz Skoryi

Enthusiasm, encouragement, energy, and efficiency are definitely words that apply to Liz Skoryi and her involvement with the promotion of Latin in Illinois.  She has not slipped into retirement from her teaching of math and Latin at the high school level and, like so many, dropped from sight.  Instead she has remained just as active in the Illinois Classical Conference and stepped up her participation in some key activities for students.

Over the course of twenty years, the Illinois Classical Conference has been fortunate to have Liz willing to be the financial auditor and, more recently, treasurer.  Liz’s cogent advice on estimating costs has saved the ICC from errors in membership fees, conference registration, and treasury audits.  Liz willingly manages unusual requests and irregular cash transactions.  Her one-page, color-coded summary statements are a staple at Advisory Council meetings, and her stories of researching an aberrant check are legendary.

Also for ICC, Liz takes the Augur, ICC’s newsletter, from the editor and does the photocopying and mailing, a tedious but important job for communication within the organization.

At the Illinois Junior Classical League North convention, Liz is the “boss lady”, as she is affectionately called by her co-tabulator of the scoring room.  Prior to the convention, she assists in writing academic questions, duplicates the tests and the scoring sheets, and creates “the box” of rules, scoring guidelines, and results pages.  When she walks into the convention, everything is well organized for the three-day event with about 400 students.  She helped develop the multiple page scoring mechanism while she was teaching full time and continues to ensure its fairness to all.  She facilitates the success of the IJCL-N conventions by working behind the scenes so that teachers and chaperones can be with their students instead of working in the scoring room.  Her efficiency has helped maximize the effectiveness of other retired teachers, parents, and volunteers as a support to the Latin teachers and students of Illinois.

As chair of the Southern Region of the Chicagoland Certamen League for at least the last ten years, Liz is responsible for keeping this “student-favorite” activity alive and prospering.  Behind the scenes, Liz prepares for the events by scheduling dates and venues, assigning readers and scorekeepers, communicating with sponsors and students, and researching and preparing questions.  Even in retirement, she is willing to immerse herself in the problems of last-minute cancellations and rebracketing that certamen meets inevitably produce.  At the three contest nights during the school year, Liz directs the tabulating of round results and conducts the awards ceremonies honoring the top competitors.  Liz manages the financial aspects of the Certamen League as well as the major expenditures for the championship city rounds.  Her accounting and math skills have put the Certamen League on a sound footing—from the tabulation of scores to the ordering of ribbons and trophies to the paying of the bills.  This arm of Latin academics competition continues to flourish under Liz’s encouraging and watchful eye.

Liz also helps out with the certamen portion of the Chicago Public Schools Latin Olympics, a one-day event for Latin students, both elementary and high school.

It is our honor to recognize and acknowledge Liz for the work she has performed for these organizations; moreover, we offer our deepest gratitude for her spirit of genuine caring for our students, colleagues, and organizations.  She exemplifies the Roman virtue of giving of oneself for the good of the little “res publicae” of ICC and Classics in Illinois.

--Nomination from the llinois Classical Conference